Appolinaria Suslova in Dostoevsky's life

[lerik]

Does anybody know any information about Appolinaria Suslova?There is a TV programme about Dostoevsky on Russian TV and the person there talked about Dostoevsky's 'lover'.Apaarently,Suslova was his mistress(at least that was said in the programme) during Dostoevsky's first marriage.He planned to see her when he went to Europe for the first time but he found out that she was in love with someone else.It ws said that he was very shocked by this and after this he satrted writing "The Gambler",where he gave the main character the appearance and character of Suslova.
  I really don't know about this period in Dostoevsky's life.Can anybody explain to me how Suslova and Dostoevsky met and what sort of relationship did they have?

[MikeK]

Joseph Frank deals with this at length in his biography.  He's explained it much better than I can.  If you can find a copy of his book in your library, that'd be the way to go.  If not, I could get my copy and give you a short-hand version, but I don't have the book with me at the present time.

[duende]

as far as ı know, Dostoevsky meets Polina(that show he calls her)at one of his conferences at a university in moskov..he was reading "the notes from the house of dead"...She gets utterly impressed with him, his reading..he walks off the hall and stops him outside, they start talking and then they start seeing each other secretly, in various hotel rooms, which drives Polina crazy after a while. She was much younger than him, known to be a free sprited woman...that kind of a discreet intimacy was not good for her...she had expected a breathtaking experinece with him, at least more than a pure sexual one, rarely bestowed intimacy and frequent irrelavant literary talks..Then they plan to go on a Paris trip together, it is true.But just as usual Dostoevsky attempts to pospone it due to some troubles about his literary magazine..But Polina seems to be determined to go..therefore, she hits the road to Paris without him, meets with another guy there..has an affair which does not last more than a few days...